Shenandoah (band)
Shenandoah is an American country music band founded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in 1984 by Marty Raybon (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Ralph Ezell (bass guitar, backing vocals), Stan Thorn (keyboards, backing vocals), Jim Seales (lead guitar, backing vocals), and Mike McGuire (drums, background vocals). Thorn and Ezell left the band in the mid-1990s, with Rocky Thacker taking over on bass guitar; Keyboardist Stan Munsey joined the line up in 1995, until his departure in 2018. The band split up in 1997 after Raybon left. Seales and McGuire reformed the band in 2000 with lead singer Brent Lamb, who was in turn replaced by Curtis Wright and then by Jimmy Yeary. Ezell rejoined in the early 2000s, and after his 2007 death, he was replaced by Mike Folsom. Raybon returned to the band in 2014.[1] That same year, Jamie Michael replaced the retiring Jim Seales on lead guitar.
This article is about the country band Shenandoah founded in the 1980s. For Arlo Guthrie's country band, see Arlo Guthrie.
Shenandoah
Muscle Shoals, Alabama, U.S.
1984–1997, 2000–present
Columbia/CBS, RCA, Liberty, Capitol, Free Falls, Cumberland Road Records, Foundry Records
Marty Raybon
Mike McGuire
Paul Sanders
Nicky Hines
Donnie Allen
Andrew Ishee
See Band members
Shenandoah has released nine studio albums, of which two have been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The band has also charted twenty-six singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including the Number One hits "The Church on Cumberland Road," "Sunday in the South" and "Two Dozen Roses" from 1989, "Next to You, Next to Me" from 1990, and "If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too)" from 1994. The late 1994-early 1995 single "Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart," which featured guest vocals from Alison Krauss, won both artists a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.
Musical styles[edit]
The band's sound is defined by country, bluegrass and gospel influences. John Bush of Allmusic calls Shenandoah "one of the first groups to rebel against the urban cowboy image of the '80s and lead the way to the new traditionalism of the '90s."[3] Marty Raybon's vocals have been described as "blend[ing] the soulfulness of rhythm and blues with the lonely intensity of great country music."[68] Alanna Nash wrote that the band's work relies on "sentimental lyrics revolving around the Southern experience,"[13] and said that Shenandoah "forged its very commercial reputation on a soulful gospel-and-bluegrass blend, with lead singer Marty Raybon's searing sincerity making even the tritest songs about small-town Southern values and attitudes memorable."[21] Logan Smith of the St. Petersburg Times said that the band has "woven together a highly polished sound built around precision musicianship and pristine harmonies, very much a hybrid of Raybon's bluegrass roots."[69] Writing for the Associated Press, Joe Edwards cited the variety of sounds on the band's second album, referring to "The Church on Cumberland Road" as a "spirited up-tempo," also making note of the Southern imagery in "Sunday in the South" and the "truest country music tradition" of the ballad "She Doesn't Cry Anymore."[5]